Los Angeles, Mexico

So I’m in my Boxter breezing down the 405 on a rare excursion from the Hill and guess what I see. On a billboard advertising a local Hispanic radio station is prominently displayed the address: “Los Angeles, California.” Except the “California” was crossed out and replaced by “Mexico.” What the heck is going on?

I knew the Mexican government was engaged in a devious plot to invade the United States in order to become a US welfare state (“The Mexifornia that Roared” 4/26/05). Unfortunately for Vicente Fox, the US government knew all about Grand Fenwick, “The Mouse that Roared,” and avoided even attempting to secure the border. What’s more, the invading Mexicans really like it here and have little interest in returning to Mexico for welfare payments. In fact, the latest Zogby poll conducted in Mexico shows that the ordinary people there have decidedly different views of the Mexican-American dynamic.

Zogby found that a large majority of the Mexican population (58%) believes the southwest territory of the US rightfully belongs to Mexico, and that Mexicans should have the right to enter the US without permission.

By contrast, Zogby's survey of Americans conducted within a few days of the Mexican poll shows a large majority (58%) supports reducing immigration levels and 68% wants the military deployed along the border to protect the US from illegal immigration.

Immigration is the driving force behind population growth in the US since we're not having enough babies. ("Married Americans: Do Your Duty," 4/2/05) If present trends continue, the US population, now 293 million, is expected to be about 400 million people by the year 2050.

The US accepts about one million new legal immigrants a year. Also, about 400,000 immigrants come to this country each year illegally, and 8 to 10 million illegal immigrants reside in the US today.

In a recent poll by RoperASW, 85% of Americans agree that illegal immigration is a “serious” problem, and over half (55%) say it is “very serious.”

In fact, 76% of Americans prefer that legal immigration be kept below current levels. A majority (58%) would prefer fewer than 300,000 enter per year.

Most Americans want to completely halt illegal immigration (68%) and to reduce the number of illegal immigrants now present in the United States to near zero.

Americans support tough measures to halt illegal immigration, including mandatory arrest and forfeiture of property, followed by deportation, for anyone here illegally (83%).

The intriguing question is what about the remaining 17%?

My guess is that they are Democrats living in Boston, San Francisco and inside the Washington Beltway. There might be some Republicans too.